All-Time Team And Other Miscellany

by J.P. on Aug 14, 2008 6:08 AM EDT

Who's more marketable - Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby? Who cares - neither of them "will be significant winners in the U.S. in the short term."... Tampa Trib blogger Erik Erlendsson lists D.C. as his seventh favorite NHL city.... Speaking of Tampa bloggers, for Chrissakes, Damian Cristodero, there's only one "l" in "Olie" (but expect him to add at least 25 in the standings... zing!).... Finally, last week 'Canes beat writer/blogger extraordinaire Luke DeCock put together his all-time all-'Canes team and threw it to his readers for discussion. Taking inspiration from that, here's my take on an all-time all-Caps team (full lineup, roles and line combos considered and a few liberties taken on positioning) for you to tear to shreds in the comments:

Alex Ovechkin - Michal Pivonka - Peter Bondra
Dennis Maruk - Bengt Gustafsson - Mike Gartner
Bobby Carpenter - Mike Ridley - Dave Christian
Steve Konowalchuk - Dale Hunter - Kelly Miller

Rod Langway - Calle Johansson
Scott Stevens - Sergei Gonchar
Kevin Hatcher - Larry Murphy

Olie Kolzig
Don Beaupre

Tweet Comment 17 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

What's mildly humorous is that that's the assignment we've been asked to write about at Bleacher Report this last week. Kind of interesting to see DeCock do one. I've been taking the summer off, so didn't write one yet.

by Ogre on Aug 14, 2008 8:47 AM EDT reply actions

"there's only one "l" in "Olie" (but expect him to add at least 25 in the standings..."

Well played, sir.

by Gary on Aug 14, 2008 10:50 AM EDT reply actions

Yvon Labre? He was before my time, but was the only jersey in the rafters when I was a kid...hard to replace any of the six d-men you have though...

I might go with Al Jensen, Pete Peeters or Mike Palmateer between the pipes instead of Beaupre, but Donnie's a solid pick.

by James on Aug 14, 2008 11:04 AM EDT reply actions

What, no room for Dino or Oates?

by Anonymous on Aug 14, 2008 11:12 AM EDT reply actions

I could buy Dino for Christian and Oates for Rids, perhaps, but went with guys who were here longer and did more.

As for Labre, I could swap him in for Hatch, but went with the guy with whom I was more familiar.

by JP on Aug 14, 2008 11:17 AM EDT reply actions

And by "did more" I guess Oates being on the team that went to the Finals and Ridley being on a couple of Choking Dogs squads would argue that 77 should be there instead of 17.

by JP on Aug 14, 2008 11:18 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah I would swap Oates for Ridley, and Dino for Christian, but being just 26 years old, I am admittedly more biased towards players from the 1990's. Especially biased towards Dino who was my favorite player when I first became a hockey fan.

by Sombrero Guy on Aug 14, 2008 11:21 AM EDT reply actions

Pivo as top-line center? Really?

by JessMan on Aug 14, 2008 12:27 PM EDT reply actions

@ JessMan: Who would you have feeding the two best goal scorers in team history? Oates would be a nice fit there, but I couldn't put him as the #1 pivot, could I?

by JP on Aug 14, 2008 12:30 PM EDT reply actions

The thing about Bondra with Ovie is that they both get/got things done by themselves. With that fact, you can move Bondra down to #2 (even though he was by far my favorite player growing up), and put the more-likely-to-get-the-puck-and-pass-who-also-happens-to-be-a-speed-demon-RW in Gartner with Ovie. Then, at that point, who even cares who the #1 pivot is?

Also, for an all-time team of current and former players, I'd still put Backstrom up with Ovie -- have we had a deadlier two-some before?

by DrinkingPartner on Aug 14, 2008 1:00 PM EDT reply actions

That 3rd D-man pairing of Hatcher and Murphy... I don't think I would put them on the ice unless I was up by about 5 goals AND on the Power Play..

You would be asking an AWFUL lot for your Goaltender to bail you out.

by Dr Caps Fan on Aug 14, 2008 1:01 PM EDT reply actions

I'd still put Backstrom up with Ovie -- have we had a deadlier two-some before?

Carpenter and Gartner in 1984-85 was pretty sick.

And I agree with the good doctor about that third pairing - Joe Reekie actually almost made my list. Tinordi, too.

by JP on Aug 14, 2008 1:16 PM EDT reply actions

Beaupre! Shame Carey chased him outta town.

by Mike M. on Aug 14, 2008 3:42 PM EDT reply actions

three years from now, backstrom and green will be on that list, possibly semin, if he conitnues to build on the positives

by dsb on Aug 14, 2008 4:36 PM EDT reply actions

Ridley over Pivo. Easily.

by Ogre on Aug 14, 2008 8:27 PM EDT reply actions

@ JP

Every player on the 84-85 team was under 30 years old. That's pretty amazing.

by B19 on Aug 14, 2008 8:29 PM EDT reply actions

Glad to see Kono on the list and that, so far, no one has disagreed. While not the greatest scorer, he was my favorite player for many years, even to this day ( a couple of young, current Caps excepted). Did the man ever blink? Hope he is doing well, although I read recently he left the Avalanche front office organization. Maybe he could come back to the Caps in some capacity.

by Paul R on Aug 16, 2008 11:53 AM EDT reply actions